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In many places, steam generated at a generating plant is distributed through a steam piping system to individual customer sites for purposes such as heating a building or generating hot water. The metering and delivery of district steam to a site typically involves a custom design and installation of specific piping at the site to match the individual energy needs of the customer. This process begins with an estimation of energy consumption at the site. For the case of steam, energy consumption is formulated as a flowrate. A flowrate is the mass flow of a product, such as steam, through a device.
To meter this flowrate, a particular meter is selected, both in terms of size and manufacturer. Once this selection is made, a piping configuration is designed to match the meter selection and fabricated at the site. Using the same energy consumption and flowrate data, particular pressure reduction components are selected to reduce the pressure from the higher pressure in the distribution system piping to the appropriate lower pressure at the site. This selection allows a custom piping design to be completed, the piping fabricated, and installed at the site.
This process results in a permanent piping system, which offers little flexibility should the energy consumption vary or the design parameters change. If meters and/or pressure reducing valves need to be replaced, equipment from the same manufacturer and of the same size must be used or significant modifications to the permanent piping must be made.
The present invention relates to a prefabricated metering and pressure reduction piping system suitable for the distribution of district steam or other fluids at an individual site. The piping system includes backbone piping mounted on a frame and interchangeable, configurable piping sections that are attachable between sections of the backbone piping within the frame. The backbone piping and the frame remain unchanged regardless of the application and the configurable piping sections inserted therein. At the factory, the configurable piping sections are provided as standardized spool pieces. The spool pieces are replaced with the desired piping sections at the site.
The desired piping sections for the site are formed of the selected components, typically a flowmeter and one or more pressure reducing valves, inserted between upstream and downstream lengths of pipe that terminate with standardized or common interface flanges. The piping sections are the same length as the standardized spool pieces and connect to the backbone piping with the standardized interface flanges, allowing the use of any selected make, size, and configuration of meter or pressure reducing valve in the system.
The piping system of the present invention results in reduced costs and faster and simpler installation. Quality is increased because higher tolerances can be achieved in the factory than in the field. The system provides a flexible, efficient, and high quality prefabricated alternative to standard, field fabricated piping systems.